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Mushroom grow kit
PF-Tek MycDrop
The smallest, fastest of our PF-Tek kits. One brown rice flour cake in one box: you inoculate it yourself, colonise it, dunk it, and fruit a medium harvest in the included tent.
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Want to know the moment it returns?
For cultivating legal gourmet mushroom species only. A gourmet liquid culture or spore syringe is not included.
filled and sterilised fresh to order
arrives sterile or we replace it
any gourmet species, your choice
single cake, no grain stage, suits cooler homes
The short version
A single-stage PF-Tek kit built around one brown rice flour cake in a sterile HEPA-filtered Mini MycoBox. You inject your own gourmet culture through the rubber port, let it colonise, dunk the colonised cake in water, then fruit it on rinsed perlite inside the included XL grow tent. It colonises faster than the bigger PF-Tek MycoBox and copes well with cooler homes, giving a medium harvest over several flushes. You add the culture (about 2.5ml); it is not included.
How it works
How a PF-Tek MycDrop grow works
PF-Tek is the brown rice flour cake method that got most home growers started in the 1990s, and the MycDrop is our smallest, fastest take on it. Everything happens in one little box, so there is no grain stage and no mixing. You inoculate, colonise, dunk, then fruit. Clean hands, a steady warm spot and some patience are all it asks.
Inoculate the cake
Wipe down the bag, slide out the Mini MycoBox, and clean the grey rubber port on the lid with the included wipe. Fit a fresh sterile needle to your gourmet culture and inject your solution into the port. Work somewhere clean and draught-free, and do not touch the white air filter strips.
Colonise the cake
Leave the box somewhere steady and warm. Aim for around 24 degrees, though anywhere from 18 to 24 is fine as long as it stays consistent and you watch for condensation. No heat mat. Do not open it. Wait until the brown rice flour cake is solid white with mycelium right through.
Rinse the perlite, set up the tent
Tip the included perlite into a strainer and rinse it under the tap until it is soaking wet, then let it stop dripping and pour it into the XL grow tent. Perlite is dusty, so cover your mouth and nose while you handle it. The wet perlite is what holds humidity around the cake while it fruits.
Dunk the cake
Once the cake is fully colonised, lift it out and submerge it in clean water, weighing it down with a plate so it stays under. Cover the container to keep it clean. Soak it anywhere from 6 to 24 hours to load it with the water that becomes your fruiting humidity. Rinse it, let it drain, then sit it back in the box with the vermiculite layer back on top.
Fruit your mushrooms
Stand the box on the damp perlite and fold the tent shut. The humidity comes from the cake and perlite, so do not mist for the first day, and only lightly after that if it looks dry. A 1cm slit on each side near the top plus a low fan in the room gives the fresh air that triggers pinning. Add indirect daylight or a 6500K light a couple of feet away. Harvest each mushroom just as the veil under its cap starts to tear.
Why this one
What makes the MycDrop different
It is the smaller, quicker sibling of our PF-Tek MycoBox. A single shallow cake in one box means less to colonise, so it finishes sooner, and the all-in-one design copes well with cooler homes. Here is where it sits against the kits either side of it.
The shallow 1 inch substrate depth also suits some of the fussier gourmet species, and because you inoculate it yourself the box arrives sterile and keeps until you are ready.
Why it works
How we make it sterile
The cake is the one part that has to be perfectly clean, because that is where your culture meets a sealed pot of nutrients with no competition. This is how it gets there.
Sterilised fresh
Every box is filled and put through a rigorous sterilisation process to order, so the substrate reaches you clean rather than sitting on a shelf.
Sealed for inoculation
It arrives sealed in its bag and stays that way until you slide it out to inject, so the only opening is the moment you add your culture.
HEPA filtered
The box breathes through HEPA filter strips, so it can exchange air while colonising without letting spores and moulds drift in. Do not touch or remove them.
Worth noting
No process is ever perfect, which is exactly why every kit is backed by the Sterile Guarantee further down.
In the box
What's included
One complete all-in-one kit, bar the culture, which you add yourself. The glove size you pick is the only variation.
The kit
Needs 2.5ml of culture
- 1 x 750ml HEPA-filtered Inject-thru Mini MycoBox (L18 x W12 x H5cm)
- Sterile organic brown rice flour substrate, enhanced with coffee, vermiculite and gypsum
- 1 x XL HEPA-filtered grow tent (L32 x H49cm)
- 1.5L perlite for humidity
- Hygiene kit: alcohol wipes, hand wipes, face mask
- Online instructions
Glove option
Choose your size
- No gloves, or sterile gloves in S, M, L or XL
- Gloves are optional but we strongly advise them
- They keep your hands out of the equation during the one moment that matters, the injection
The one thing you add
What you'll need
The MycDrop is sterile and ready to inoculate, so you supply the living part: a gourmet liquid culture or spore syringe. You need about 2.5ml. On the latest single-port version it all goes into the one port. We make gourmet liquid cultures you can inoculate it with.
Liquid culture has known, predictable genetics, so it tends to colonise faster and more reliably. Spore syringes are cheaper and offer more variety, but are never fully sterile, so incubate them at the cooler end of the range to let the mycelium outrun any stragglers.
Whatever you inoculate with, give the mycelium a clean start: wipe the rubber port, work in still, draught-free air, and flame the needle before you fit it. Most failed grows trace back to a sloppy injection rather than a bad kit. We stock the sterile gear for it, including a still-air box and wipes, in sterile and lab equipment.
Risk, reversed
The Sterile Guarantee
Every kit is made fresh and arrives sterile and sealed. If one shows contamination on arrival, before you have inoculated it, send us photos and we will replace it. What happens after you open it comes down to your technique and conditions, which no reputable seller can promise for you. So we stand fully behind the kit reaching you clean, and the troubleshooting below helps with the rest.
At a glance
The spec sheet
- Kit type
- Single-stage PF-Tek, inoculate and fruit one cake
- Vessel
- 750ml HEPA-filtered Mini MycoBox, plus an XL grow tent to fruit in
- Substrate
- Sterile organic brown rice flour, with coffee, vermiculite and gypsum
- Inoculation
- Inject the rubber port on the box lid (latest version has one port)
- Culture needed
- About 2.5ml, not included
- Colonisation temp
- Around 24 degrees, 18 to 24 is fine if kept steady
- Fruiting temp
- A little cooler, around 20 to 22 degrees
- Fruiting method
- Dunk the colonised cake, fruit on rinsed perlite in the tent, dunk again between flushes
- Time to harvest
- Around 4 to 6 weeks from inoculation to the first flush
- Yield
- A medium harvest over several flushes, the first being the biggest
- Made
- United Kingdom, fresh to order
- Suited to
- Gourmet species: oyster, Lion's Mane, Shiitake and similar
When things look off
Common issues
Because you do the growing, the odd thing can go sideways. Here are the common ones and what they usually mean.
Slow or no growth
Usually the room is too cold. PF-Tek runs slower at low temperatures, so nudge it toward 24 degrees and keep it steady, then mark the mycelium edge and check again in a few days.
Yellow liquid on the cake
Normal. That is metabolites, the mycelium's own waste, not contamination.
Green, grey or sour
That is contamination. Bin the affected cake and keep it well away from your other grows.
Tent drying out
The room may be too cold to build humidity, or your fan or light is too close, or the tent slits are too big. Tape the slits smaller and move the cake away from heat.
The full step-by-step lives in the PF-Tek MycDrop grow guide, and the grow-kit troubleshooting guide goes deeper on contamination and temperature.
Common questions
Frequently asked
Aim for about 24 degrees while it colonises, and anywhere from 18 to 24 is fine as long as it is steady. Keep an eye out for condensation. Drop it a couple of degrees, to around 20 to 22, for fruiting. Avoid heat mats, they cause condensation and uneven heat.
No. You add your own gourmet liquid culture or spore syringe, about 2.5ml in total. On the latest single-port version it all goes into the one port. We sell gourmet liquid cultures separately.
The latest version has a single port. Fewer ports means fewer pathways for microbes to get in, which raises your odds at the cost of a few extra days colonising.
Any legal gourmet species you have a culture for. It suits oyster mushrooms, Lion's Mane, Shiitake and similar, and the shallow 1 inch cake works well for some of the fussier species.
Roughly 2 to 3 weeks for the cake to colonise, then a soak and a week or so to fruit. So around 4 to 6 weeks from inoculation to the first flush, longer if your room runs cool.
The MycDrop is the smaller sibling. It holds less substrate, so it colonises faster and gives a medium harvest, where the MycoBox waits longer for a larger one. Same method, different size.
Yes. Once it is fully colonised you submerge it in clean water for 6 to 24 hours, then rinse, drain and fruit it on the rinsed perlite. Dunk it again between each flush to rehydrate it.
Send us photos before opening it and we will replace it, that is our Sterile Guarantee. Contamination that appears after you inoculate comes down to technique and conditions, so check the troubleshooting first.
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Questions and answers
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For cultivating legal gourmet mushroom species only.Sold as a sterile substrate kit for home cultivation. We trust you to be responsible.